When merchants look to make a platform move, they are often faced with the choice between a Saas Platform or an Open Source Platform.

Saas stands for “Software as a Service” and is defined by Gartner as “Software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. It is based on one set of common code and data definitions that is consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers at any time.”

The main differentiator is that SaaS sites are self-hosted. Examples of SaaS platforms are BigCommerce and Volusion.

Open Source is defined by Gartner as, “Software that comes with permission to use, copy and distribute, either as is or with modifications, and that may be offered either free or with a charge. The source code must be made available.”

The main differentiator of Open Source sites is that they need to be hosted either in the Cloud or on a traditional physical server. Examples of Open Source platforms are Magento and WooCommerce.

Often times, when weighing the pros and cons of the two platform types, merchants are swayed by what they believe are the limitations of SaaS platforms.

Those perceived limitations are:

1. Customizability

2. Security

3. Performance

4. Reliability

5. Total Cost of Ownership

6. Enterprise Readiness

7. SaaS Vs. Cloud

I can’t customize SaaS.

Saas isn’t secure.

SaaS doesn’t perform as well as a custom set up.

SaaS doesn’t perform as well as a custom set up.

SaaS isn’t worth the expense.

SaaS is only for small business.

I can take my on-premise software and just put it in the cloud.

Watch the webinar recording to understand why these perceived limitations are nothing more than misconceptions.